Washington, D.C. (November 20, 2003) — ASTRA, the Alliance for Science & Technology Research in America, today praised final House approval and Congressional passage of the Nanotechnology Research and Development Act. Earlier, on November 18, the Senate had passed by unanimous consent a version of the Act, which had been negotiated with the House Science Committee. The bill now goes to the President, who is expected to sign the bill.

Dr. Mary L. Good, Chairman of ASTRA as well as Dean of the Donaghey School of Information Science and Systems Engineering at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock lauded passage of the Act, stating, "The National Nanotechnology Initiative has been in the making for nearly three years. It represents an essential key for the future of U.S. scientific success, and helps the United States to meet a global research challenge."

Good continued: "With about $3.7 billion in funding promised over the next four years for the National Nanotechnology Initiative, Congress has wisely planned for cross-disciplinary research across many federal agencies and it has established a series of coordination offices and advisory committees to insure that information is shared and that taxpayer money is well spent. It is most encouraging that Congress recognizes that multi-year investment is needed for such an initiative. Indeed, multi-year budgeting may work well for other underfunded scientific research disciplines - especially in the physical and mathematical sciences and engineering."

"The National Science Foundation estimates that nanotechnology may be the basis of as much as $1 trillion in global economic activity in about ten years. That means that, for the U.S. to maintain its standard of living, our industries and educational institutions will need to have nanotechnology investments and develop better understanding of how materials can be manipulated at the atomic and sub-atomic scale of measurement. Nanotechnology research will affect virtually every product and process we encounter in our modern economy," said Dr. Good. "Nanotechnology breakthroughs will provide a competitive advantage for Americans in an environment where nations around the world are developing well-educated and highly skilled workers and using their lower wage rates to compete against American workers," she added.

According to Dr. Good, "More than a decade of under-funding scientific research in specific disciplines - like the physical and mathematical sciences and engineering - has created a severe imbalance in the basic research portfolio. This past inattention will continue to plague our economy at all levels for the foreseeable future, but today's Congressional action supporting a broad nanotechnology initiative is one of several essential steps needed to change the situation. Ultimately, the nanotechnology products and processes produced through this initiative should benefit our society through improving productivity, perhaps the only way we can hope to compete in a globalized labor market."

Dr. Good previously served as Under Secretary for Technology at the U.S. Department of Commerce and has held various senior positions in industry and academia as well. ASTRA is a broad-based collaboration representing industry, academe and leading professional and scientific organizations representing the physical and mathematical sciences and engineering.

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